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Fifty-two years ago this week, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s last resort for all criminal cases, reversed Ruby’s murder conviction and death sentence and ordered a new trial because of the trial judge’s egregious legal errors. Because Ruby died before he could be retried, in the eyes of the law, he will always be an innocent man.

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“Gail Raven,” an exotic dancer in the southwestern United States in the 1960s, became friends with Jack Ruby.

Who says new JFK witnesses can’t be found?

After JFK Facts recounted Jack Ruby’s pursuit of an exotic dancer named Gail Raven in January 1963, I received a message from a woman who identified herself as Raven’s daughter. She told me that her mother was still alive, and she confirmed that her mother and Jack Ruby were close. I asked her if her mother would share her memories of the man who killed accused assassin Lee H. Oswald. She said yes.

In 1963 Gail Raven was the stage name of a precociously mature 20-year-old woman who danced on the national nightclub circuit that included Ruby’s Carousel Club in Dallas. Ruby (born Jack Rubenstein) was a Chicago tough guy who took a shine to her, and they became friends.

Now close to 70 years old, Gail Raven is living in the southern United States. I have confirmed her real name but have agreed not to publish it here to protect her privacy. Read more

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I was intrigued by advance notice of Mark Shaw’s new book, The Reporter Who Knew Too Much, both because its subject, pioneering journalist Dorothy Kilgallen, and the medi credentials of author Mark Shaw.

Shaw describes himself as a former criminal defense lawyer, legal analyst for USA Today, ESPN, and CNN, and the author of 25 books. I sent Shaw some questions and he responded thusly:

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Dorothy Kilgallen was one of the first female syndicated columnist in U.S. newspapers after World War II. After JFK was killed she broke a big stories about Jack Ruby, the assassin of accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.

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In the early 1960s, Dorothy Kilgallen was perhaps the most famous female news reporter in America. She was also an early critic of the Warren Commission report. Then she died, reportedly of a drug overdose. Read more

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Melba Christine Marcades, aka Rose Cheramie was found dead on the road in Big Sandy Texas in front of the property of Dallas billionare H L Hunt’ top security officer. Her head had been run over but a bullet wound in it was also found in her head. Read more

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From The Advocatee — Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a fun obituary of an unrepentant crook with a delicious name, Frenchy Brouillete.

Marcello’s name cropped up in various JFK assassination theories, and a House Select Committee report in 1979 mentioned “credible associations relating both Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby to figures having a relationship, albeit tenuous, with Marcello’s crime family or organization.” In the Randazzo book published last year, Brouillette describes Ruby — who killed presumed Kennedy assassin Oswald — as “another Marcello family goombah.

“I’m an investigative reporter but I’ve always loved plays,” says Hillel Levin. The result is “Assassination Theater,” Levin’s investigative drama about the murder of President John F. Kennedy, now playing at the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago.

Focusing on Chicago FBI agent Zach Shelton, the four-man drama develops a “Mafia did it” interpretation of JFK’s assassination, along with excursions into the medical evidence and the life of Jack Ruby.

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The Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago will be the setting for a bold and provocative play about the assassination of our 35th president.”

Opening August 11, the play was written by editor/author Hillel Levin. He blames the Chicago organized crime figures for the Kennedy’s death. Levin says the play will bring new information to light proving his claim.

I’m most curious about what Levin has to say about Jack Ruby, the man who lived at the intersection of the JFK story and Chicago organized crime. Read more

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Hal Hendrix was one of those respectable figures who hovered on the edge of the JFK assassination story. He was a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist whose service to the CIA is well-documented (though blandly denied in his recent Miami Herald obituary). He died Feb. 12 in Vero Beach, Florida. He was 92 years old.

Who was Hal Hendrix and what was his role in the JFK story?

One version comes from the Spartacus Educational Forum. John Simkin writes: